


The Time We Have

by mrsfrisby



Series: Till There Was You [3]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Before the battle of Lothal, Crew as Family, F/M, Little bit of Fluff, Little bit of angst, M/M, Watching the Sunrise, beginning a new life together, facing the possibility of death, getting married, not sure what the future will bring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-11
Updated: 2017-05-13
Packaged: 2018-10-30 19:13:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10883187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrsfrisby/pseuds/mrsfrisby
Summary: As they watch the sunrise on the day they're planning to free Lothal from the Empire, Kallus and Zeb face an uncertain future--and join their lives together before it's too late.





	1. Chapter 1

“The sun’s starting to come up.”

Zeb, being much the taller of the two, was the first to spot it. Sitting up straighter on the side of the temple, Kallus could see it, too: the rosy sliver of sky just above the horizon. Kallus stiffened, fear taking over any sense of anticipation. His betrothed’s arm tightened around him, and Kallus leaned in to feel the warmth and safety it held.

“We should head in soon,” he said in the darkness.

“Soon,” Zeb agreed.

They hadn’t begun the night as a vigil. Though they were restless, full of adrenaline, even frightened, they had gone to their quarters set on having what little privacy they could in the last hours before sunrise. They’d also planned to get at least some sleep.

Neither of them wanted to go into the next day exhausted, with their faculties impaired. But sleep was not going to be theirs that night. Knowing what might befall them in so painfully few hours, they didn’t want to waste whatever time they had in unconsciousness. They didn’t even have to discuss it. Neither of them were much in the mood for talking anyway.

Because unspoken was the fact that it could be the last night they would ever have together. And sleep mattered very little when they were facing an ugly truth like that.

So they had tangled in each other’s arms. They’d done everything to be as close to each other as two beings could over and over again, dragging their pleasure out until it was almost pain.

Then, when they had wrung each other out entirely, they got dressed and went to watch for the sunrise. 

The air was never truly dry in the jungles of Yavin 4, but in the very early morning it was something almost bearable. As they leaned against one another, Kallus thought of the very first night they spent on the ice moon. They’d kept their distance then, even though they’d desperately needed warmth. By their second and final night there, they’d slept much as they sat now: shoulder to shoulder, heads together.

Kallus smiled to think of how foolish he was not to realize then what was happening between them. What was happening to him. Those couple of days in the freezing cold changed his entire world. And even as he faced what the break of day might bring, he couldn’t find it in himself to regret any of it.

Looking up at Zeb, he saw his betrothed’s brow was furrowed in worry. Over the course of so many months, Kallus had learned to thoroughly decipher the posture of Zeb’s ears, and right at that moment, they were flattened, stiff. The Lasat who was normally so full of life was subdued.

“I love you,” Kallus said softly.

“Love you, too, Kal.”

With a nod, Kallus continued. “Nothing that happens today could ever change that,” he said. 

“I know,” Zeb said, his voice a low rumble in Kallus’s ear. “And nothing will happen. I’ll make sure of it.”

“Zeb….” Kallus began, but Zeb cut him off, turning on the hard stone to meet his eyes.

“I’ll make sure of it,” Zeb repeated, wrapping both arms around Kallus this time. “We’ve been in tight spots before and gotten out of them. Why would freeing Lothal be any different?”

These were words Kallus had heard over and over again in the last few weeks as they created their plan of attack, but he knew the Empire too well to be able to fully believe the truth of them. He knew Thrawn too well. Yes, they might come away from this battle unscathed. Or Thrawn might unleash a bloodbath on the entire planet. 

It wouldn’t be the first time he’d done that, after all.

And Kallus felt something brewing in him, something less frightened than what he’d felt just hours earlier, and more certain. By this time tomorrow, he might be dead. It was so much easier to think about his own death than Zeb’s, so he forced his mind to stay there and simply to ponder his own fate.

If he were to die on Lothal, he wanted to do it in an honorable way. That wasn’t all he wanted, however.

Painstakingly, he pulled himself to his feet. “Come with me,” he said. “There’s something we really need to take care of, and there’s no time like the present.” Kallus reached out his hand to Zeb.

Without asking a single question Zeb took it, and for a moment they just stood there gazing into each other’s eyes. Kallus ran his thumb over the leather bracelet on his betrothed’s wrist, painted by Sabine to depict their joined hands holding the glowing meteorite from the ice moon. A matching bracelet was fixed onto his wrist as well, tokens they’d exchanged after they’d become betrothed. 

Zeb smiled in the rose-tinged light, and Kallus couldn’t help but smile in return. They’d had some misunderstandings and miscommunications in the past, but they were getting much better at reading each other. And Zeb seemed to have no doubt where Kallus wanted him to go.

“So, we’re going to do this?” Zeb asked. “Right now?”

“There is quite literally nothing I’d rather do,” Kallus replied.

Together, they held hands as they made their way to Hera and Kanan’s quarters.

Unsurprisingly, both were up and dressed already when Kallus knocked on their door. Equally unsurprisingly, Kanan took one look at the two of them and knew why they were there.

“Do you want me to do the honors?” he asked them.

Kallus and Zeb looked at each other in surprise. Whenever they’d talked about it in the past, Kanan hadn’t figure into the plan.

“Uh, actually we’d been thinking Hera would,” Zeb said sheepishly. Kanan was, after all, one of his closest friends. “She’s, uh, the general after all.”

Kallus could hear Hera’s familiar laugh coming from the depths of their quarters. 

“Then let’s get to it,” she said, pushing past Kanan.

The Jedi touched her shoulder, though. “Wait,” he said. “Maybe it’s something we should think about, as well.”

She smiled up at him and shook her head. “They’ve been planning to do this anyway,” she told Kanan. “We’ve never even discussed it.”

“I know, but we….”

Hera reached both of her hands up to cradle Kanan’s face in them, and they leaned in till first their noses and then their lips touched. 

Though he was well aware of how much Hera and Kanan loved each other, Kallus had never once seem them show physical affection in such a public way before. He wondered if they were feeling as desperately worried about what the day would bring as he was.

“When we get back from Lothal,” she said to Kanan. “We’ll talk about it then. We’ll figure it out.”

Kanan nodded into her hands and then she turned back to Kallus and Zeb. “You should probably wake everyone up,” she told them. “They’ll never forgive you if they miss it.”

So they did. Zeb went to Ezra and Rex, Kallus to Sabine and Chopper. Chop even insisted on rousing AP-5 from his charging station.

For so, so many years, Kallus had never thought that this was something life would hold for him. Then again, so much of his world now was composed of things he’d never imagined. 

Yet there he was, holding Zeb’s hand, waiting to get married.


	2. Chapter 2

The ceremony was simple, but neither of them much cared. It’s not like they’d planned anything fancy, even when they’d chatted before about how it might happen. They just walked into the common room together and joined the small group of friends who were already there. 

That’s not to say that some things weren’t exactly the way they’d pictured them. Ezra stood by Zeb’s side as his witness, and Sabine was by Kal’s, after all. When Zeb had first woken Ezra, he’d gotten a pillow to the face. But as soon as he explained why he was there so early on the very day of the liberation of Lothal, Ezra’d jumped out of bed fast enough.

When Zeb had asked him to be his witness, Ezra threw his arms around him and made a sad, choking sound. “Of course I will,” he’d told Zeb solemnly. “I’d be honored.”

Now Ezra stood beside him doing his duty as Zeb’s friend, while Sabine whispered loudly that if anyone had ever told her a year ago that she’d be standing up for an Imperial espionage agent, she would have told them to get their head checked. 

Kal only barely smiled at the joke. He was staring at Zeb with such intensity that it was starting to get worrisome. Only when Hera began talking did Kal seem to even breathe. 

“We don’t really have anything prepared,” Hera said. “But I don’t think that really matters.” She glanced between the two of them. “These two have never been great at thinking ahead when it comes to each other anyway.”

Finally, Kal smiled. “Are you here to insult us or marry us?” he asked.

Everyone quietly laughed, but it seemed to Zeb that it was mostly because they all knew what was at stake here. And how little time they really had left before they shipped off to Lothal.

“Definitely to marry you,” Hera replied “And to that end, I want to ask you to repeat the following. Zeb?”

Standing as tall as he could, Zeb readied himself for his vows. 

“I promise to share my life and my heart with you, through good times and bad,” Hera said. 

Zeb dutifully echoed what Hera said, his eyes never leaving Kal’s. 

“And to honor and love the man before me today, and for all of the days of my life,” Hera said.

With a long, deep breath, Zeb repeated the words. “And to honor and love the man before me today, and for all of the days of my life.”

When Hera turned to Kal, though, even she stumbled a little when she tried to speak. His eyes were already filled with tears, and Zeb held onto both of his hands a little more tightly. 

‘Cause knew what Kal was thinking: that what was left of their lives could be numbered in hours and not days or years. Over the last few months, he’d gotten pretty good at reading Kal, after all. The skin on his soon-to-be husband’s neck was getting redder by the second, and his right eye was twitching (a sure sign that he was worried). So, the fear his guy was holding inside was clear as day to Zeb without Kal even having to say it. 

“Are…are you ready?” Hera asked. Kal just nodded, so she went on. “I promise to share my life and my heart with you, through good times and bad,” she said. 

Kal swallowed three times before he could get the words out. “I promise to share my life and my heart with you. Though…through good times and bad.”

Ezra of all people sniffled by Zeb’s side.

“And to honor and love the man before me today, and for all of the days of my life,” Hera said.

But Kal paused before he repeated the words of the vow. Their eyes met and Zeb couldn’t help but smile at him. “Love you,” he said under his breath.

“Love you, too.” 

With a little shake of his shoulders, Kal finally repeated, “And to honor and love the man before me today, and….” His voice cut out, and Zeb pulled him closer. “And…for all of the days…of my life.”

Kanan said a quiet blessing over them, asking the Force to flow through them both and bind their lives together. No one said anything for a second or two afterward, which made Zeb get a little impatient.

“We married yet?” he asked, and everyone broke out laughing.

“I think that just about covers it, yes,” Hera said. “You’ve already exchanged your tokens, so unless you want to make it official with a kiss, you’re married.”

A wide smile spread across Kal’s face, taking Zeb completely by surprise. “I’ve always been partial to making things official.” He reached up and took Zeb’s cheek in his hand, and this time Zeb smiled, too.

Then they kissed. It started out as something small, but it didn’t take long to get a whole lot more intense.

“Is this really how couples kiss at weddings?” Kanan’s voice asked from somewhere behind him.

“It’s how they do anyway,” Sabine answered.

Zeb growled at their friends without breaking their kiss, and everyone laughed again.

By the time they moved even slightly apart, though, the whole room was empty. 

“You okay?” Zeb asked.

“We’re married,” Kal said, a funny look on his face. “We’re really married.”

“Seems that way,” Zeb replied. “Least if Hera is to be believed.”

Kal smiled at him again, and this time it was Zeb who fell into awe at what they’d just done. “Karabast,” he said. “You’re my husband now.”

“Maybe you can finally give me a translation for that word,” Kal replied. “I am technically family now, you know.”

Family. 

Zeb hadn’t ever thought of marriage that way, but he didn’t know why it hadn’t occurred to him before. Yeah, he’d lost all of his blood relations long ago. And, yeah, he’d found an adopted family with the crew of the Ghost. But this was something completely different. 

Never in a million years had Zeb thought that this was how he’d start another kind of family, or that Kallus of all people would be the man he started it with. Life was a funny thing, though. Sometimes it kicked you in the teeth, and sometimes it gave you love in the least likely way any Lasat ever found it.

Alarms began to blare around them. Lift off to Lothal was just minutes away, and Kal’s arms tightened around him. 

Zeb pulled back. “It’s going to be okay,” he told Kal. “We’re going to be okay. I promise you we are.”

But Kal just shook his head. “You can’t promise that, Zeb,” he replied. “You can’t control everything that will happen today with just a bo-rifle and steely determination.”

“I can try.”

Their foreheads touched. 

“What you can try to do is stay alive, Zeb.”

“You too, Kal.”

With one last, lingering kiss, they left the room they were just married in and went to join the rest of their family. A battle unlike any they’d had before was about to begin. And though they’d rather be safe in their quarters, or even going on a wedding trip, this was how they were going to begin their married life. 

Zeb squeezed his husband’s hand one last time before they both got ready to face whatever this day, their wedding day, was going to bring.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments much appreciated!


End file.
